Conventional farming systems and methods are inefficient and waste valuable resources such as water. For example, conventional farming irrigation methods (e.g., overhead, pressurized, unpressurized, and/or gravity flow methods) apply water to planted areas as well as unplanted areas (e.g., generally areas between rows for the sake of clarity). As watering the unplanted areas is not necessary, these methods waste water and are inefficient. Moreover, when these systems apply additive such as fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides. etc. these additives are also applied to the unplanted areas and contributes to ground pollution. Further, with regard to water-scarce locations (e.g., arid locations, desserts, etc.), growing certain crops such as water intensive crops using conventional irrigation methods may require more water than is available these locations. Accordingly, it can be difficult if not entirely impossible to grow water intensive crops in water-scarce locations using conventional farming methods.
Soil moisture levels are often difficult to accurately and/or efficiently control at one or more locations using conventional farming methods. Similarly, soil matric potentials are often difficult to accurately and/or efficiently control at one or more locations using conventional farming methods.
Moreover, with regard planting seeds, conventional farming methods rely upon seed drills to deposit seeds into the ground. Unfortunately, seed drills cannot fully condition the soil in which seeds are planted so as to provide an environment conducive to growth of the seeds such as an environment with nutrients and/or moisture retainers. Moreover, conventional seed drills cannot accurately track location of seeds when planting crops using mixed seed types such as is typical in research and/or test plots.
Further, laying out and/or planting landscapes such as commercial landscapes is labor intensive, difficult to accurately lay out, and can often take days to cover a relatively small area. Accordingly, commercial landscapes are often expensive.